Biofuels – Sustainable land use instead of land consumption – UFOP.
The discussion about banning internal combustion engines is in full swing at national and European level. Closely related to this is the question of whether technology should be based exclusively on electric drives in order to achieve sustainable and largely CO2-neutral private transport.
In addition to eFuels, the production of which will have to be expanded for years to come, biofuels are a measure already introduced in the fuel market for the decarbonisation of road transport, which are available in quantitatively relevant quantities. In 2021 alone, the addition of up to 7 percent biodiesel and up to 10 percent bioethanol in Germany officially confirmed more than 11 million tons of CO2EQ can be saved.
Critics of this established and certified sustainable use of biofuels from cultivated biomass often speak of “land consumption” when it comes to the use of rapeseed as a raw material for biodiesel production, for example.
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Stephan Arens, Managing Director of the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) points out in this context that there can be no question of land consumption for biofuel production.
Stephan Arens, said:
Rapeseed is the most important domestic oil crop and it is never ‘consumed’ exclusively for the production of biofuels. Instead of land consumption, we should rather speak of sustainable and comprehensive land use, because each of the approximately 1.2 million hectares of rapeseed currently growing on German fields not only provides oil, but also high-quality protein to an even greater extent.
Every litre of rapeseed oil, regardless of its use as an edible oil or energy source, thus also contributes significantly to the nutrition of farm animals, which in turn contribute to human nutrition in the form of meat and dairy products as well as eggs.
Stephan Arens explains the additional positive effects associated with this: “In the discussion about biofuels, it is often overlooked that rapeseed grown and processed in Germany replaces imported soybean meal to a considerable extent. Since only seeds that have not been genetically modified may be grown in the EU, this will also enable GMO-free milk and meat production.”
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Biofuels: Sustainable land use instead of land use, March 1, 2023
